European Parliament passes far-reaching Digital Services Package
The European Parliament has officially adopted the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, the first comprehensive rulebook for online platforms to be introduced.
Beyond the buzzwords: Putting meaningful transparency at the heart of the Digital Services Act
Online Policy Dialogue hosted by AlgorithmWatch and the European Policy Centre on 30 October 2020. At this event we presented the key recommendations of our #GoverningPlatforms project, a year-long, civil society-driven dialogue series involving participants from around Europe. Following a keynote speech and Q &A with European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe #Vestager, panellists discussed how the #DSA could improve algorithmic transparency by providing watchdogs with the tools they need to hold platforms accountable.
AGENDA
/ Keynote Address 2:24
· Margarethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for Making Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European Commission
/ Presentation of the project results & recommendations 33:13
· Mackenzie Nelson, Project Manager, AlgorithmWatch
/ Panel Discussion 41:55
· Alexandra Geese, Member of the European Parliament
· Dr. Daniela Brönstrup, Deputy Director General, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
· Roderik De Turck, Advisor to Kris Peeters MEP, European Parliament
· Jef Ausloos, Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam
Moderated by AlgorithmWatch, Mackenzie Nelson
Online #platforms and digital services play a central role in modern society and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are inextricably linked to how we coordinate remotely at school or work, find and consume information, organize our social movements or exercise key democratic rights. From search engines to social networking sites, large parts of our communications infrastructure are governed by opaque algorithmic curation, moderation, and recommendations systems.
With a view to the forthcoming #DigitalServicesAct (#DSA), policymakers, civil society, and online platforms have emphasized the need to improve algorithmic transparency so that citizens and elected officials can understand the rules governing online content in algorithmic ‘black boxes.’ But what does this mean in practice? What regulations must be put in place to enable algorithmic scrutiny for the common good? What rules must the DSA enforce in order to empower watchdogs to understand and combat online harms? How can the DSA set a global standard in platform governance?
LINKS
Read our recommendations: https://algorithmwatch.org/en/governing-platforms-final-recommendations/
Download the PDF: https://algorithmwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Governing-Platforms_DSA-Recommendations.pdf
Learn more about the GoverningPlatforms project: https://algorithmwatch.org/governing-platforms
Implications of the EU Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act for U.S. Business
Please join the CSIS Scholl Chair in International Business for the rollout of its latest report, “Implications of the European Union’s Digital Regulations on U.S. and EU Economic and Strategic Interests,” by Dr. Kati Suominen.
In recent months, the European Union has adopted several sweeping digital regulations, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), while proposing a number of new measures—including the Data Act, the Artificial Intelligence Act, and the Media Freedom Act. These regulations will shape, likely quite dramatically, the environment for doing digital business in Europe and beyond. They will have profound implications on the leading U.S. digital service providers designated by the European Union as “gatekeepers”—large digital services providers that are expected to adhere to regulatory requirements—as well as these companies’ hundreds of millions of transatlantic European business and individual customers.
Dr. Suominen’s report estimates that the DMA and DSA would have severe negative impacts on U.S. digital service providers, “conservatively entail[ing] some $22 billion to $50 billion in new compliance and operational costs to U.S. digital services providers and forc[ing] them to forego critical business opportunities.” Moreover, “U.S. companies will likely incur new digital services cost increases as a result of the EU policies: if U.S. digital services raised their costs on U.S. companies by just 5 percent due to EU regulation, U.S. companies could incur over $97 billion in new costs, with $45 billion carried by SMEs.” The EU’s Acts can also have significant strategic implications by inadvertently promoting Chinese technologies in Europe. As Congress wrestles with digital regulation issues, this report is particularly timely.
This event is made possible through generous support from the Computer and Communications Industry Association
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The European Union’s Approach to Tech Governance
Rose Jackson
Director, Democracy & Tech Initiative, Dgital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council
Prabhat Agarwal
Head of unit DG CONNECT F.2 Digital Services (Programme Office & Societal aspects), European Union
Gerard de Graaf
Senior Envoy for Digital and head of the EU office in San Francisco, European Union
EU Passes Landmark Rules for Tech Companies Like Amazon and Apple | Tech News Briefing Podcast | WSJ
Legislators in the European Union have approved two sweeping digital regulations aimed at tech companies and online businesses. The laws are the most far-reaching efforts by Western countries to rein in big tech in a generation.
WSJ tech reporter Sam Schechner joins host Julie Chang to explain the new rules and how companies are assessing them.
Photo: Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
For more episodes of WSJ’s Tech News Briefing: https://link.chtbl.com/WSJTechNewsBriefing
Visit the WSJ Podcast Center: https://on.wsj.com/3zTcL89
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